After a long hiatus, I'm back. Why the long silence? I really can't say; the muse just hasn't been with me, I suppose. I'm not sure she is with me again yet either, but sometimes you have to drag her back to you through sheer force of creative will. So here I go, asserting my creative will. . .
It's a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon here in Istanbul. I've just sat down for a mid-afternoon snack and am asking myself, as I always do every time I sit down with this particular snack, "Turkish breakfast, where have you been all my life?" How could I, the cucumber and tomato loving person I am never have thought to combine those with slices of feta cheese? Not all mixed up like a salad, mind you, but each - deliciously strong cheese, tomato, and cucumber - all layed out in beautiful slices on the plate. Toss a few tangy olives on there and I'm in heaven!
So, other than Turkish breakfast, what has been going on in my life? As with every holiday season, the last couple of months have been paradoxically slow and fast. Work is slow this time of year, but it seems like I was in Oslo a couple weeks ago rather than the couple of months its actually been. I was there for the Marine Ball - the annual celebration of the Marine Corps' birthday. In embassy/consulate world, this is usually done with a big, formal ball. I got a fancy dress, new shoes (of course!), packed my bag and headed to Norway to attend the ball with, appropriately, my Marine Jason. For a girl who never went to prom or homecoming, the night was full of nerves, excitement, and the realization that there really is something to the whole man-in-uniform thing.
Thanksgiving rolled around rather quickly after my return from Oslo and, yes, there was turkey in Turkey! Copious amounts of it, in fact, spread over two Thanksgiving celebrations. The first was hosted at the consulate by the American employees for the local employees. We served about 180 people that day and nobody left with less than a full stomach! On Thanksgiving day, I and some of the other Holiday Orphans (those of us without family here) spent the day surrounded by consulate families and marveling at how similar holiday dinners are across the board. Christmas was much the same though with fewer people and ham (such a luxury!) instead of turkey. I am very grateful to the families who opened their home to those of us far away from our own families.
New Year's Eve was a quiet, though drunken, affair here at The Dorm (as those of us who live here affectionately call our building. We routinely shuffle from apartment to apartment in slippers and sweats). I spent the evening with Preeti and Karen gossiping, solving the problems of the world, making resolutions, eating, and drinking. We all made it to midnight and beyond, which I'll admit, is a rare occurrence in my life anymore.
There. I think you're now caught up on my life. I'll put serious effort into actually updating this sucker from time to more-frequent time.
